Webdesign advice

Nikolas · Fri 03/02/2006 12:43:10

Hello! Once more in this forum!

I'm building a website for me and my music. With the usuall stuff. A bio, news, samples, links etc...

Because I know shit about web design and graphivc design I have someone doing it for me. And I find him very good at what he does.

anyway after a while he came up with these two jpeg to show me how it is going to be.

and

The first one is my bio page (which needs some updating...), and the other is an example for the samples page, while playing a video. (Forgive the greek language in the second pic)

I actually like it a lot.

It is clean, professional, very straight forward in all buttons and design and I even like my pics! But I always need a second, thuird, fourth and so on advice and comments.

So there you go... All yours... All paintovers are welcome...

Thank you in advance...

PS. the site name will probably be ni-si.com (From NIkolas SIderis). I find it small catchy and has an actuall meaning... You?

Bartimaeus · Fri 03/02/2006 13:07:31

You're right, it looks great - very professional.
There're just a few things that bug me.

The green/yellow text seems really weird on the whole gray scheme you have going there. Also, the white boxes for the links looks a little too plain.
This is all just in my personal opinion of course.

~Bart

DonB · Fri 03/02/2006 19:24:54

Since I once followed an education for this but I never finished it, I got something to say about this;

I do dig the design. and i loooove the yellow text on grey, in opposite to bart, as a matter of fact.. it really stands out and it is a very good piece of webdesign.. it makes the page more alive then just black and white.

but.. i would do an other coming-out color on each page.. to make all pages have an own identity while having the same style.

like.. all pages grey and white like now, but on each separate chapter of the site an other color of scrollbar.. (+ i made an extra cube at the left top of the side, i think it works out great imo..)

imagine the following pages all be different

Corey · Fri 03/02/2006 19:33:03

i dont like that background much but thats just my opinion

DonB · Fri 03/02/2006 19:34:23

Serious corey.. please be more detailed nikolas cant work with that kind of vague arguments..

CaptainBinky · Fri 03/02/2006 19:37:19

I must admit, I too am not a fan of trendy abstract web page backgrounds (particularly grey ones). However, I do agree with the edits DonB did - the little square may be insignificant, but it really helps to define the yellow as a scheme rather than looking like the scrollbar is randomly yellow.

Oh, and I like the orange version best

Bartimaeus · Fri 03/02/2006 20:17:15

DonB I agree with you that a bit of colour on that background is great for impact, I was just talking about the choice of colour - I didn't like the yellow.

I seriously liked the orange in the paintover you did... and even the green.

The yellow, not so much.

ManicMatt · Fri 03/02/2006 20:23:21

I prefer the orange one too!

It's very slick, I like the erm.. ink splodge bits.

How about changing the look of the scroll bar next to the text on the character bio? i'm refering to the blocky arrows on it mostly. How about non-blocky ones or solid triangles?

Kweepa · Sat 04/02/2006 00:01:28

I like what DonB has done, but I'd desaturate the "coming-out" colours (-60 or so in photoshop). Currently the scroll bar sticks out like a sore thumb.

I'd remove the scroll bar totally and allow the page to scroll normally, so that all that text can be scrolled into view at once. Why cram it into a little box? Bah.

ManicMatt · Sat 04/02/2006 21:29:40

Good idea Steve, I can't stand little scroll boxes!

Haddas · Sat 04/02/2006 22:04:40

alternatively he could have two arrows like so: < >
to scroll through the text as "pages" if you will.

Damien · Sat 04/02/2006 22:14:05

I like the design. What I would like to suggest is to clean the text areas so that text doesn't overlap that bubble-like noise.

Das Plans · Sun 05/02/2006 12:48:31

Hey there!

When I saw this post two days ago, I started doodling over it a bit, and somehow I came up with this. It's totally different, I know, and the content area is way too empty, but I thought, what the hell, I'll post it anyway. Maybe you can get something from it.

Anyway, I like the original design, too. A lighter orange maybe would work for me, instead of this retina-burning green and yellow.Ã,Â

See you around...

DonB · Sun 05/02/2006 14:16:56

HerrStein.. I do like your design, really.. but I love the original one way more.. I think yours is way too default for an "artist" like Nikolas, he needs a more artistic layout like the original posted here.

Das Plans · Sun 05/02/2006 14:36:00

Yeah, I guess it really is a tad "default" ... good choice of words!

Plus, it looks more like something, that would suit a hardrock-adventure-game-DJ-whatsoever better. What with the font and all ...

DonB · Sun 05/02/2006 14:38:36

Now I read it better what I said i see i didnt used the right words tho.. I ment i think the menu on the top from left to right is too default.. the way you made it is very artistic! But not suitable for a classic music artist like nikolas.. i think it would indeed suit perfect for a game maker studio or something.

EDIT: Would be a shame to put such a layout to trashbin.. use it for your own game studio or something

Das Plans · Sun 05/02/2006 15:16:42

Hehe, nevermind. Just as we're speaking, I'm putting in the logo of my own super sophisticated, top-noctch game creation studio ... which has never even produced anything.

On second thought ... Maybe I should work on a game instead?

Nikolas · Sun 05/02/2006 18:32:44

guys thank you so much for all this...

Donb: I will probably ask the designer to change the colour (probably to orange something), and also, Steve I will desaturate it a little (although I like a bit the "lighting" feeling that you get). I will also put somewhere else some colour to have a little more balance.

And I will definately clean the text...

Also I will change the bar arrows...

Now a little more detail about the website...
Aanother idea I had was to seperate the classical music I write and the music I write for games. I find that a classical concerto alongside with an electronic tune would be too much... I want to differentiate on the two "styles" or paths of my music...

What do you think on that?

btw, you haven't told me how you find the name www.ni-si.com ?

ManicMatt · Sun 05/02/2006 19:50:36

Well, nisi is a legal term of something I can't remember.

It's not exactly catchy, but I don't really see a problem.

Oneway · Wed 08/02/2006 11:57:02

The name is not one i would choose i think. I don't know if you already claimed that domain name or not, but try playing with more letters.

Ni-si doen't sound powerful enough, doesn't make me want to find out what's behind it.

After toying with the first 3 letters of your names i came to the following:
nik-sid
sik-nid
sink'd
skiddin'
disk in

I'm not saying these are any good (i don't really know what to think of them) but at least you may want to experiment a little more.